Full-Time Faculty
Heather Hewett
Coordinator
Office: SOS 003
Phone: (845) 257-2978
E-mail: hewetth@newpaltz.edu
Heather Hewett, Ph.D. (University of Wisconsin-Madison) is the Coordinator of Women’s Studies and an Assistant Professor in the Department of English. A writer and cultural critic, Professor Hewett teaches undergraduate courses on postcolonial literatures in the English department and introductory Women’s Studies and transnational feminisms in the Women’s Studies Program. She received her B.A. from Yale University and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she received a minor in Feminist Cultural Studies and a Certificate in African Studies. She joined the faculty at SUNY New Paltz in 2005.
Professor Hewett’s research examines the intersection(s) of gender, narrative, and globalization, with special interests in feminism, motherhood, the media, and autobiographical writing. Her work has been published in journals such as MELUS, English in Africa, Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, The Scholar and Feminist Online, Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering and two edited collections, Chick Lit: The New Woman’s Fiction and Mothering in the Third Wave: Contemporary Feminist Journeys. In addition, she has written essays and reviews for numerous mainstream and feminist publications.
Amy Kesselman
Professor
Office: SOS 004
Phone: (845) 257-2977
E-mail: kesselma@newpaltz.edu
Amy Kesselman, Ph.D. is the full time faculty member based in the Women's Studies Program. She joined the New Paltz faculty in 1981 after attending a doctoral program in history at Cornell University and a Master's program in history at Portland State University. She was an activist in the early women's liberation movement in Chicago and is currently working on a research project on women's liberation in New Haven, Connecticut. She is the author of Fleeting Opportunities: Women Shipyard Workers in Portland and Vancouver during World War II and Reconversion and the editor, with Lily Mc Nair and Nancy Schniedewind of Women: Images and Realities, A Multicultural Anthology which is now in its fourth edition. She teaches History of Women in the United States, Feminism in the United States and Women: Images and Realities.
Adjunct Faculty
Emily Caigan
Adjunct Faculty
Office: SOUTHSIDE
Phone: (845) 257-2975
E-mail: caigane@newpaltz.edu
Emily Caigan, M.F.A. (Interdisciplinary Arts, Goddard College), is an adjunct professor teaching Women: Images and Realities, Feminist Art and Culture and special topics courses. As an educator she focuses on feminism, performance and art as interdisciplinary subjects. Her research examines these topics in relation to social activism, the artist's process and cultural change. She is currently working on a video essay examining the performative lectures of artist Carolee Schneemann. Her previous faculty appointments include New York University and Skidmore College.
As an artist she works in a variety of mediums. Her audio and multi-unit installation Scale Dances showed at A.I.R. Gallery in NYC in 2005 and will be seen at Arch in Washington, DC, opening March 2007. For more information please see www.scaledances.com
Robert Haskins
Adjunct Faculty
Office: 845-853-5945
Phone: (845) 257-2975
E-mail: haskinsr@newpaltz.edu
Robert Haskins, J.D. (Syracuse University) is an adjunct professor, teaching Reproductive Law and Policy. The Board President of Planned Parenthood of the Mid-Hudson Valley, he is also a partner in the law firm of Steinberg & Symer in Poughkeepsie. A graduate of New Paltz, with a BA in Political Science, Bob has previously worked for the New York State Assembly and the New York State Attorney General.
Suzanne Kelly
Adjunct Faculty
Office: SOUTHSIDE
Phone: (845) 257-2976
E-mail: suzmkelly@aol.com
Suzanne Kelly, Ph.D. (Comparative Studies, Florida Atlantic University), M.A. (Gender Studies, The New School for Social Research) is an adjunct professor teaching Women: Images and Realities, Feminist Theory, Love and Sex and Women and Popular Culture.
Peri Rainbow
Adjunct Faculty
Office: SOUTHSIDE
Phone: (845) 257-2976
E-mail: rainbowp@newpaltz.edu
Peri L. Rainbow is a noted clinician and educator with over 20 years of experience in the field of psychological trauma. She currently provides clinical supervision, psychotherapy, and consultation to individuals and agencies throughout the Hudson Valley and New York State. She is the former director of sexual assault services at Bard College, Annandale, NY, and has been a member of the faculty of the State University, College at New Paltz since 1991 teaching courses in the Women's Studies Program, the Psychology Department, and the Department of Humanistic/Multicultural Education.
Peri is the author of "Making Sense of the Experience of Incest Survivors" in Women: Images and Realities, A Multicultural Anthology, second, third, & fourth editions (Mayfield Publishing Co., 1999, McGraw Hill, 2002, 2003, 2007), and is co-author of The Trauma Safety Drop-In Group, A Clinical Model of Group Treatment for Survivors of Trauma (NYSOMH 1998).
She has received recognition for her pioneering work in the treatment of post traumatic stress and was the first part-time faculty member to be recognized as the Outstanding Teacher of the Year at S.U.N.Y. at New Paltz. Peri is listed in the 2002 edition of Who's Who of American Teachers. She is the former co-chair of the Ulster County Sexual Assault Task Force and the Dutchess County Task Force against Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence.
Abigail Robin
Adjunct Faculty
Office: SOUTHSIDE
Phone: (845) 257-2975
E-mail: robina@newpaltz.edu
Abigail Robin teaches Freshman Composition and runs Writing Workshops for EOP students. As an instructor in the English Department, she has been instrumental in developing co-requisite curricula for Modern World and Freshman Art Seminar; she has taught English as Second Language students and Supplemental Writing Workshop sections. She also has an interest in writing across the curriculum and has participated in Writing Board Activities. She is a member of UUP New Paltz Chapter Women's Right and Concerns Committee, and Member of Women's Studies Conference Planning Committee since 1998. In addition, she has participated as a planning committee member for Women Studies conferences since 1997. For many years, she has hosted ON CAMPUS shows for Instructional Media Services (IMS) promoting New Paltz special events and special people. Abigail has also promoted Hudson Valley artists and historical sites since 1986 when she became an entrepreneur of ARTours. In 2003, she directed, produced, and acted in Howard Zinn’s play Emma, at the Byrdcliffe Theatre in Woodstock, where she resided for twenty-five years. She wants to be remembered as a teacher, actor, writer, and more basically as an informed and decent human being.
Dana Rudikoff
Adjunct Faculty
Office: SOUTHSIDE
Phone: (845) 257-2975
E-mail: rudikofd@newpaltz.edu
Dana Rudikoff, J.D., M.S.W. (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), is an adjunct professor, teaching Women and the Criminal Justice System. She maintains a solo law practice in Kingston, New York and is also an Assistant Public Defender with the Ulster County Public Defender's Office. A graduate of Vassar College with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Sociology and minoring in Women's Studies, she is especially interested in examining the ways in which our legal system treats and affects people differently, based on gender, race, socio-economic status and sexual orientation.
Katherine Sarno
Adjunct Faculty
Office: SOUTHSIDE
Phone: (845) 257-2976
E-mail: ksarno@optonline.net
Kathy Sarno received her BA from Colgate University, with a major in Philosophy and Religion, and a minor in Women's Studies. She received her MA in Women's History from Sarah Lawrence College. She has been teaching in the Women's Studies Program since 1991.
Amy Kate Silvestro
Adjunct Faculty
Office: SOUTHSIDE
Phone: (845) 257-2975
E-mail: asilvestro@hvc.rr.com
Amy Kate Silvestro, CSW A social worker and therapist for over 15 years, Amy trained in feminist therapy while at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Her work has concentrated chiefly on violence against women. Professionally she has been working with women and children who have been sexually abused and served for eight years on the Board of Directors of the New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault. Amy has a full time position working with at-risk teens at a local Alternative School where she developed the "Bridge Program" in partnership with the Women's Studies Program. For eight years students at risk of dropping out of high school have had the opportunity to participate in Women: Images and Realities". It has been a powerful experience for the high-schoolers and their college classmates. Amy is dedicated to engaging students about issues related to rape and violence against women at SUNY New Paltz.
Staff
Cookie Chandler
Secretary 1
Office: SOS 001
Phone: (845) 257-2975
E-mail: chandlec@newpaltz.edu
